On the locus of visual selection: Evidence from focused attention tasks.

Abstract

Early and late selection models of attention disagree about whether visual objects are identified before or after selection, with recent evidence of interference from to-be-ignored stimuli favoring late selection over early selection accounts. However, these tests may not have permitted optimal attentional focusing. In 4 experiments subjects identified an attentionally cued target letter embedded among distractors. Only minimal effects of information appearing in to-be-ignored locations were observed. This striking efficiency of selection provides support for early selection theories and calls into question some late selection theories holding that stimuli throughout the display are immediately and fully identified prior to attentional selection. In order to explain the larger pattern of results across a variety of focused- and divided-attention paradigms, a hybrid model is advanced with a flexible locus for visual selection.

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1. Dual-task interference in simple tasks: data and theory
   Pashler, Harold · 1994 · Psychological Bulletin
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3. Top–down and bottom–up control of visual selection
   Theeuwes, Jan · 2010 · Acta Psychologica
4. The Role of Working Memory in Visual Selective Attention
   de Fockert, Jan W., Rees, Geraint, Frith, Christopher D., Lavie, Nilli · 2001 · Science
5. Perceptual load as a major determinant of the locus of selection in visual attention
   Lavie, Nilli, Tsal, Yehoshua · 1994 · Perception & Psychophysics

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